Exactly ten years after the genre-mixing, canine-driven Hungarian thriller “White God” landed the Prix Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, this year’s ceremony culminated in the same prize going to a somewhat corresponding title: Chinese director Guan Hu’s “Black Dog,” a fusion of western, film noir and offbeat comedy with a highly lovable mutt at its center. The film, about a damaged loner returning to his desert hometown after a spell in prison and finding a kindred spirit in an equally world-weary greyhound, beat 17 other titles to take the top prize in the festival’s second-most prestigious competitive section. (The festival’s Official Competition awards will be handed out tomorrow night.)
Jury president Xavier Dolan, the actor-auteur behind such films as “Mommy” and “Laurence Anyways,” commended Guan’s film for “its breathtaking poetry, its imagination, its precision [and] its masterful direction.” He echoed the enthusiasm of Variety critic Jessica Kiang,...
Jury president Xavier Dolan, the actor-auteur behind such films as “Mommy” and “Laurence Anyways,” commended Guan’s film for “its breathtaking poetry, its imagination, its precision [and] its masterful direction.” He echoed the enthusiasm of Variety critic Jessica Kiang,...
- 5/24/2024
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
In a different world, had she not been readying her long-awaited sophomore feature, “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” for its Cannes premiere, Rungano Nyoni might have spent the past few weeks preparing her family for its upcoming move to Zambia, the southern African nation where the director was born and spent part of her childhood. Instead, it was a mad dash to get the film across the finish line.
“It’s been long hours, non-stop for weeks,” Nyoni says on the eve of the French fest’s opening night. The frenzy isn’t likely to let up anytime soon: The director and her family plan to move house and fly to Zambia not long after the whirlwind of her Cannes premiere. Even those rare moments of calm on the Croisette between photo calls and press junkets aren’t likely to offer much relief. “I brought my toddler for good measure,...
“It’s been long hours, non-stop for weeks,” Nyoni says on the eve of the French fest’s opening night. The frenzy isn’t likely to let up anytime soon: The director and her family plan to move house and fly to Zambia not long after the whirlwind of her Cannes premiere. Even those rare moments of calm on the Croisette between photo calls and press junkets aren’t likely to offer much relief. “I brought my toddler for good measure,...
- 5/16/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Korean comedy action film “The Roundup: Punishment” destroyed all competition in local theaters on its Wednesday opening day.
The film earned $4.92 million from 821,000 ticket sales, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That represented a crushing 97% share of the day’s theatrical market.
Including a smattering of previews over the latest weekend, the film finished Wednesday with a cumulative of $5.26 million earned from 862,000 spectators.
Earlier, it was reported that the film had broken the Korean record for advanced ticket sales. On the eve of its arrival in cinemas, the film had notched up 830,000 pre-sales for Wednesday and other subsequent days. That comfortably exceeded previous record-holder “Along With the Gods: The Last 49 Days,” which pre-sold 646,000 tickets in 2018, and last year’s “The Roundup: No Way Out,” which pre-sold 640,000 before arriving in cinemas.
The film, which sees a tough-guy cop go after gangsters involved in drugs,...
The film earned $4.92 million from 821,000 ticket sales, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That represented a crushing 97% share of the day’s theatrical market.
Including a smattering of previews over the latest weekend, the film finished Wednesday with a cumulative of $5.26 million earned from 862,000 spectators.
Earlier, it was reported that the film had broken the Korean record for advanced ticket sales. On the eve of its arrival in cinemas, the film had notched up 830,000 pre-sales for Wednesday and other subsequent days. That comfortably exceeded previous record-holder “Along With the Gods: The Last 49 Days,” which pre-sold 646,000 tickets in 2018, and last year’s “The Roundup: No Way Out,” which pre-sold 640,000 before arriving in cinemas.
The film, which sees a tough-guy cop go after gangsters involved in drugs,...
- 4/25/2024
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Nearly ten year after the Emmy Award-winning first season, “The Jinx” is remarkably back on HBO. Andrew Jarecki, Marc Smerling, and Zac Stuart-Pontier’s engrossing docuseries about the string of murders connected to Robert Durst built to a now-infamous climax, and will return with more story to tell April 21.
Before that, it’s worth revisiting the 2015 series and decades of headlines it interrogates. “The Jinx” gripped its audience with mounting evidence against Durst and a scintillating narrative structure, but also quickly came under fire for manipulating the timeline and even Durst’s hot mic recordings for dramatic effect. In 2015, IndieWire’s Matt Brennan pointed out that “The Jinx” set an impossible standard for documentary drama — one that the series itself had arguably not cleared in the first place. Jessica Kiang wrote that “This is not Jarecki’s gotcha so much as it is a self-initiated, cloudily motivated performance piece of Durst’s,...
Before that, it’s worth revisiting the 2015 series and decades of headlines it interrogates. “The Jinx” gripped its audience with mounting evidence against Durst and a scintillating narrative structure, but also quickly came under fire for manipulating the timeline and even Durst’s hot mic recordings for dramatic effect. In 2015, IndieWire’s Matt Brennan pointed out that “The Jinx” set an impossible standard for documentary drama — one that the series itself had arguably not cleared in the first place. Jessica Kiang wrote that “This is not Jarecki’s gotcha so much as it is a self-initiated, cloudily motivated performance piece of Durst’s,...
- 4/18/2024
- by Proma Khosla
- Indiewire
“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” the second feature from Zambian-Welsh writer-director Rungano Nyoni, has been picked up by A24 for international sales ahead of its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival next month.
The film, which marks Nyoni’s follow-up to her acclaimed 2017 feature debut “I Am Not a Witch,” was also financed by A24 alongside BBC Film and Fremantle, while it was developed by BBC Film and Element Pictures. It will bow in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar competition.
While the plot has been kept under wraps, in his lineup announcement Cannes director Thierry Fremaux said the film was a “family drama” set in Africa and also a “comedy,” describing it as “very strong.”
“I Am Not a Witch,” which first landed in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, marked Nyoni as a filmmaker with a unique voice and one to watch. A darkly comic story of a young African girl who...
The film, which marks Nyoni’s follow-up to her acclaimed 2017 feature debut “I Am Not a Witch,” was also financed by A24 alongside BBC Film and Fremantle, while it was developed by BBC Film and Element Pictures. It will bow in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar competition.
While the plot has been kept under wraps, in his lineup announcement Cannes director Thierry Fremaux said the film was a “family drama” set in Africa and also a “comedy,” describing it as “very strong.”
“I Am Not a Witch,” which first landed in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, marked Nyoni as a filmmaker with a unique voice and one to watch. A darkly comic story of a young African girl who...
- 4/11/2024
- by Alex Ritman
- Variety Film + TV
The Flats, a film about The Troubles in Northern Ireland, won the top award at Cph:dox in Copenhagen at a Friday night, earning a €10,000 prize.
The documentary directed by Alessadra Celisia takes place in “New Lodge in the center of Belfast, a neighborhood still haunted by the nearly 30-year conflict between Catholics and Protestants which officially ended in 1998.”
In their citation, the jury called the film witty, multi-layered, profound and provocative. They wrote, “Our main award recognizes not only creative and conceptual daring, but a filmmaker with the humility to realize when the story outgrows its framework, and the confidence to follow where it, and its fantastically vivid characters lead. We live in a world of divisions, borders and locked gates. Coming like a conversation shouted through one of those locked gates, our winning film is a collective portrait of several proud, funny, resourceful individuals, who would be willing to...
The documentary directed by Alessadra Celisia takes place in “New Lodge in the center of Belfast, a neighborhood still haunted by the nearly 30-year conflict between Catholics and Protestants which officially ended in 1998.”
In their citation, the jury called the film witty, multi-layered, profound and provocative. They wrote, “Our main award recognizes not only creative and conceptual daring, but a filmmaker with the humility to realize when the story outgrows its framework, and the confidence to follow where it, and its fantastically vivid characters lead. We live in a world of divisions, borders and locked gates. Coming like a conversation shouted through one of those locked gates, our winning film is a collective portrait of several proud, funny, resourceful individuals, who would be willing to...
- 3/23/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
The ongoing war in Gaza was high on the agenda at the awards ceremony of Cph:dox, Copenhagen’s international documentary film festival, with numerous filmmakers calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as they picked up their awards.
Opening the ceremony following a concert by the locally-based Middle East Peace Ensemble, artistic director Niklas Engstrøm told the crowd gathered in Copenhagen’s historic Kunsthal Charlottenborg, which is home to the fest throughout the 10-day event: “It felt right to start with this basic human message of hope and peace.”
On the theme of conflicts past and present, Italian director Alessandra Celesia picked up the top Dox:Award for “The Flats,” a powerful, timely and haunting film about a community living in the shadow of the pain and trauma of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Handing out the award, the jury, made up of Belfast Film Festival programmer and Variety critic Jessica Kiang,...
Opening the ceremony following a concert by the locally-based Middle East Peace Ensemble, artistic director Niklas Engstrøm told the crowd gathered in Copenhagen’s historic Kunsthal Charlottenborg, which is home to the fest throughout the 10-day event: “It felt right to start with this basic human message of hope and peace.”
On the theme of conflicts past and present, Italian director Alessandra Celesia picked up the top Dox:Award for “The Flats,” a powerful, timely and haunting film about a community living in the shadow of the pain and trauma of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Handing out the award, the jury, made up of Belfast Film Festival programmer and Variety critic Jessica Kiang,...
- 3/22/2024
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Superstar Japanese auteur Hamaguchi Ryusuke will unveil “Gift,” a companion piece to his recent “Evil Does Not Exist” as a one-off live performance at next month’s Hong Kong International Film Festival.
Following the success of his breakout “Drive My Car,” which won the Oscar for best international feature film, Hamaguchi initially made “Gift” as a silent film project to accompany the live performance of Ishibashi Eiko, the music composer of both “Drive” and later “Evil.”
From the same project, Hamaguchi also derived “Evil Does Not Exist,” which then went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at last year’s Venice International Film Festival. With a similar narrative, both are eco-political thrillers that revolve around a man and his daughter whose peaceful rural lives are about to be disrupted by the construction of a glamping site.
A piece of highly-controlled filmmaking, “Evil” became a major talking point with its baffling and enigmatic ending.
Following the success of his breakout “Drive My Car,” which won the Oscar for best international feature film, Hamaguchi initially made “Gift” as a silent film project to accompany the live performance of Ishibashi Eiko, the music composer of both “Drive” and later “Evil.”
From the same project, Hamaguchi also derived “Evil Does Not Exist,” which then went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at last year’s Venice International Film Festival. With a similar narrative, both are eco-political thrillers that revolve around a man and his daughter whose peaceful rural lives are about to be disrupted by the construction of a glamping site.
A piece of highly-controlled filmmaking, “Evil” became a major talking point with its baffling and enigmatic ending.
- 2/28/2024
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop made history at tonight’s Berlin Film Festival awards ceremony, becoming the first Black director ever to win the Golden Bear, the fest’s top prize, for her inventive, resonant documentary “Dahomey.” She accepted the award from Lupita Nyong’o, in turn the first Black person ever to preside over the festival’s Competition jury — a stark image of progress to cap off a ceremony marked by impassioned statements against war and social discrimination.
Following French docmaker Nicolas Philibert’s Golden Bear triumph last year with his film “On the Adamant,” “Dahomey” is the second consecutive nonfiction feature to take the award. But it’s a radically unorthodox winner nonetheless, beginning with its 67-minute running time. Yet Diop, the actor-turned-director who took the Grand Prix at Cannes 2019 with her fictional debut feature “Atlantics,” packs a world of historical and political perspective into her film’s tight framework,...
Following French docmaker Nicolas Philibert’s Golden Bear triumph last year with his film “On the Adamant,” “Dahomey” is the second consecutive nonfiction feature to take the award. But it’s a radically unorthodox winner nonetheless, beginning with its 67-minute running time. Yet Diop, the actor-turned-director who took the Grand Prix at Cannes 2019 with her fictional debut feature “Atlantics,” packs a world of historical and political perspective into her film’s tight framework,...
- 2/24/2024
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Three decades after the fall of the Soviet Union, an emerging generation of filmmakers born and raised in the independent countries of Central Asia is giving an exhilarating charge to the region’s cinema and helping to put their unheralded industries on the map.
Leading Kazakh film critic Gulnara Abikeyeva says these “children of independence” are bringing a “new attitude” to the screen and giving a jolt of energy to emerging industries that for decades were under Moscow’s thumb.
“The production of films is growing very fast in all Central Asian countries,” she says. “There have appeared so many young production studios who can make movies with public or private money.”
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, what Abikeyeva describes as the “euphoria of freedom” caught hold across its former Central Asian republics, which include Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Filmmakers who previously had to submit their...
Leading Kazakh film critic Gulnara Abikeyeva says these “children of independence” are bringing a “new attitude” to the screen and giving a jolt of energy to emerging industries that for decades were under Moscow’s thumb.
“The production of films is growing very fast in all Central Asian countries,” she says. “There have appeared so many young production studios who can make movies with public or private money.”
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, what Abikeyeva describes as the “euphoria of freedom” caught hold across its former Central Asian republics, which include Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Filmmakers who previously had to submit their...
- 12/11/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Ena Sendijarević’s “Sweet Dreams,” Netherlands’ submission in the Academy Awards international feature category, has secured North American distribution via Dekanalog.
The film had its world premiere at Locarno, where it won the Pardo for best performance for Renée Soutendijk (“Suspiria”) and the second prize of the junior jury. The film debuted in North America in Toronto’s Centrepiece section and won the Silver Hugo new directors award at Chicago. It opened the Nederlands Film Festival, where it won another six awards, including best film, best director and best leading role.
Set on a remote Indonesian island, “Sweet Dreams” explores the final days of European colonialism. It follows Dutch sugar plantation owner Jan and his wife Agathe, who are at the top of the food chain. Jan, upon returning from his nightly visit to his native concubine Siti, suddenly drops dead in front of his wife. Desperate to keep the privileges of her status quo,...
The film had its world premiere at Locarno, where it won the Pardo for best performance for Renée Soutendijk (“Suspiria”) and the second prize of the junior jury. The film debuted in North America in Toronto’s Centrepiece section and won the Silver Hugo new directors award at Chicago. It opened the Nederlands Film Festival, where it won another six awards, including best film, best director and best leading role.
Set on a remote Indonesian island, “Sweet Dreams” explores the final days of European colonialism. It follows Dutch sugar plantation owner Jan and his wife Agathe, who are at the top of the food chain. Jan, upon returning from his nightly visit to his native concubine Siti, suddenly drops dead in front of his wife. Desperate to keep the privileges of her status quo,...
- 12/7/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
As the yin-yang decal on our yoga teacher’s Subaru Crosstrek reminds us thrice a week, every natural force or entity has its perfect mirror inverse. And so, just as during the summer we escaped to movie theaters in order to cool down from record high temps, the temperature extremes caused by climate collapse now drive us back to those same movie theaters for warmth, nursing our frigid tootsies at the hearth of the annual awards season dump of very exciting Don’t-Miss Indies. But Tldr; Happy Holidays!
Eileen
When You Can Watch: Now
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: William Oldroyd
Cast: Thomasin McKenzie, Anne Hathaway, Shea Whigham, Marin Ireland
Why We’re Excited: Described as “wildly audacious, wondrously twisted” and “deliciously deranged” by Jessica Kiang in her review for Variety, director William Oldroyd’s sophomore feature after 2018’s Lady MacBeth (nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award for...
Eileen
When You Can Watch: Now
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: William Oldroyd
Cast: Thomasin McKenzie, Anne Hathaway, Shea Whigham, Marin Ireland
Why We’re Excited: Described as “wildly audacious, wondrously twisted” and “deliciously deranged” by Jessica Kiang in her review for Variety, director William Oldroyd’s sophomore feature after 2018’s Lady MacBeth (nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award for...
- 12/4/2023
- by Su Fang Tham
- Film Independent News & More
In “Àma Gloria,” directed by Marie Amachoukeli, childhood is the domain of formative gains and losses. After opening this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week, the film screened as part of the Meet the Neighbors+ competition at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. Amachoukeli previously co-directed “Party Girl,” which won Cannes’ Camera d’Or in 2014.
“Àma Gloria” introduces us to six-year-old Cléo (Louise Mauroy-Panzani), who lives in Paris with her widower dad Arnaud (Arnaud Rebotini) and her nanny Gloria (Ilça Moreno Zego). A blissfully constructed day-to-day routine keeps the world in order until one day Gloria has to return to her Cape Verdean family. In preparation to leave France for good, she invites Cléo to spend the summer with her in Cape Verde.
“Àma Gloria” unfolds as an exploration of childhood through the eyes of its young protagonist. Reviewing the film for Variety, critic Jessica Kiang called it “a debut made dazzling by...
“Àma Gloria” introduces us to six-year-old Cléo (Louise Mauroy-Panzani), who lives in Paris with her widower dad Arnaud (Arnaud Rebotini) and her nanny Gloria (Ilça Moreno Zego). A blissfully constructed day-to-day routine keeps the world in order until one day Gloria has to return to her Cape Verdean family. In preparation to leave France for good, she invites Cléo to spend the summer with her in Cape Verde.
“Àma Gloria” unfolds as an exploration of childhood through the eyes of its young protagonist. Reviewing the film for Variety, critic Jessica Kiang called it “a debut made dazzling by...
- 11/14/2023
- by Savina Petkova
- Variety Film + TV
A vampire with qualms about killing to survive is no longer a figure exclusive to the “Twilight” franchise, when a Canadian French-language debut places a teenage girl in a tricky situation, torn between what the world demands of her and what she herself wants. The film’s title is eloquent enough — “Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person” — and it already won Ariane Louis-Seize the best director prize at this year’s Venice Days, and was praised for a “strong directorial vision.” The film screened as part of the main competition at the Thessaloniki Film Festival last week.
“Humanist Vampire” is a contemporary gothic tale, a coming-of-age story, and a comedy-drama all at the same time. It stars Sara Montpetit of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight entry “Falcon Lake” as the fanged protagonist, Sasha, and Félix-Antoine Bénard as the consenting suicidal person, Paul. Louis-Seize co-wrote the script together with Christine Doyon and the...
“Humanist Vampire” is a contemporary gothic tale, a coming-of-age story, and a comedy-drama all at the same time. It stars Sara Montpetit of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight entry “Falcon Lake” as the fanged protagonist, Sasha, and Félix-Antoine Bénard as the consenting suicidal person, Paul. Louis-Seize co-wrote the script together with Christine Doyon and the...
- 11/14/2023
- by Savina Petkova
- Variety Film + TV
Sofia Exarchou’s “Animal” won the Golden Alexander at the 64th Thessaloniki Film Festival on Sunday, marking the first time in 30 years that a Greek film took home the top honors at the country’s longest-running film event.
Exarchou’s sophomore feature, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, was praised by Variety’s Jessica Kiang as “a poignant portrait of life amid the sequins and the seediness of a Greek resort.” The film follows a group of entertainers at an all-inclusive island resort preparing for the busy tourist season who are forced to wrestle with the dark reality that the show must go on as the sultry Mediterranean nights turn violent.
Lead actor Dimitra Vlagopoulou, who won the acting award at the prestigious Swiss fest for what Kiang called a “riveting” performance, also shared the award for best actress in Thessaloniki. The awards were handed out by a jury comprised of producer Diana Elbaum,...
Exarchou’s sophomore feature, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, was praised by Variety’s Jessica Kiang as “a poignant portrait of life amid the sequins and the seediness of a Greek resort.” The film follows a group of entertainers at an all-inclusive island resort preparing for the busy tourist season who are forced to wrestle with the dark reality that the show must go on as the sultry Mediterranean nights turn violent.
Lead actor Dimitra Vlagopoulou, who won the acting award at the prestigious Swiss fest for what Kiang called a “riveting” performance, also shared the award for best actress in Thessaloniki. The awards were handed out by a jury comprised of producer Diana Elbaum,...
- 11/12/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Oscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o is stepping into an executive producer role to support Sudan’s second-ever Academy Award international feature film submission, “Goodbye Julia.”
The timely film, directed by Sudanese filmmaker Mohamed Kordofani, takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan and won the Un Certain Regard section’s Prix de Liberté (Freedom Prize) at Cannes.
“‘Goodbye Julia’ is a powerful representation of the conflict happening in Sudan right now, which affects millions of lives across Eastern Africa,” Nyong’o said in a statement. “Mohamed Kordofani and the filmmakers present the issues in a beautiful, deeply personal way. I’m honored to lend my voice to help bring this film’s message to the world.”
Nyong’o, who played played Nakia in Marvel’s “Black Panther” franchise, will next be seen starring in Paramount’s “A Quiet Place” horror franchise spinoff “A Quiet Place: Day One,” written and directed by Michael Sarnoski.
The timely film, directed by Sudanese filmmaker Mohamed Kordofani, takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan and won the Un Certain Regard section’s Prix de Liberté (Freedom Prize) at Cannes.
“‘Goodbye Julia’ is a powerful representation of the conflict happening in Sudan right now, which affects millions of lives across Eastern Africa,” Nyong’o said in a statement. “Mohamed Kordofani and the filmmakers present the issues in a beautiful, deeply personal way. I’m honored to lend my voice to help bring this film’s message to the world.”
Nyong’o, who played played Nakia in Marvel’s “Black Panther” franchise, will next be seen starring in Paramount’s “A Quiet Place” horror franchise spinoff “A Quiet Place: Day One,” written and directed by Michael Sarnoski.
- 11/9/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Sly Exhibit. Courtesy of the author.Take the elevator to the fourth floor of the TIFF Bell Lightbox theater and follow the sounds of proggy synthesizers. You’ll find a small gallery containing about a dozen neo-expressionist paintings; many depict solitary wanderers against backdrops of stormy neutrals. But before you have a chance to revel in these angsty brushstrokes, you’ll have to encounter the artist—it’s not optional. His image is plastered all over the elevators, lobby, and on an enormous cube in the center of this room: stare into the smirking visage of Sylvester Stallone, sequestered in an art-filled living room. “Sly Exhibit,” reads the text on the poster. A red “N”—the classier, minimalist version of the Netflix logo—is stamped at the bottom like a seal of approval.I wasn’t familiar with Stallone’s visual art before Netflix and TIFF shared it with me.
- 9/27/2023
- MUBI
Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland has remained defiant despite a wave of vicious political attacks and online hate speech as she prepares to release her Venice Special Jury Prize-winning refugee drama “Green Border” in Poland on Sept. 22.
“I find the orchestrated hatred organized by the highest Polish officials abominable and dangerous,” the three-time Academy Award nominee tells Variety. “It proves only how deeply true and important is our film, and that we’re showing the things and giving faces to people they wanted to hide by the lies and propaganda.”
“Green Border” explores the injustice and terror perpetrated along the border between Poland and Belarus from the perspective of refugees, activists and border guards, painting a damning portrait of the right-wing, anti-migrant Polish government’s response to the refugee crisis. In a glowing review from Venice, where the film was widely praised, Variety‘s Jessica Kiang described Holland’s “intense, intelligent...
“I find the orchestrated hatred organized by the highest Polish officials abominable and dangerous,” the three-time Academy Award nominee tells Variety. “It proves only how deeply true and important is our film, and that we’re showing the things and giving faces to people they wanted to hide by the lies and propaganda.”
“Green Border” explores the injustice and terror perpetrated along the border between Poland and Belarus from the perspective of refugees, activists and border guards, painting a damning portrait of the right-wing, anti-migrant Polish government’s response to the refugee crisis. In a glowing review from Venice, where the film was widely praised, Variety‘s Jessica Kiang described Holland’s “intense, intelligent...
- 9/21/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
As pundits made their Golden Lion predictions in the last days of the Venice Film Festival, the general consensus was that it all depended on what kind of mood Damien Chazelle’s competition jury was in: playful, in which case Yorgos Lanthimos’s early critical darling “Poor Things” would sweep to victory; or sober, which could tilt the prize toward either of two urgent films about the global migrant crisis, breaking later in the fest, Matteo Garrone’s “Me Captain” and Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border.”
In the end, the jury split the difference, handing major prizes to all three films, plus Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s quiet, cryptic environmental fable “Evil Does Not Exist.” But playfulness ultimately pulled ahead. “Poor Things,” a delirious adult fantasy starring Emma Stone as a horny Frankenwoman on a wild coming-of-age journey, took the Golden Lion for best film of the festival, making good on the...
In the end, the jury split the difference, handing major prizes to all three films, plus Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s quiet, cryptic environmental fable “Evil Does Not Exist.” But playfulness ultimately pulled ahead. “Poor Things,” a delirious adult fantasy starring Emma Stone as a horny Frankenwoman on a wild coming-of-age journey, took the Golden Lion for best film of the festival, making good on the...
- 9/9/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Three-time Academy Award nominee Agnieszka Holland has called out a hard-right Polish minister who compared her refugee drama “Green Border” to Nazi propaganda, accusing him of “hate speech” and insisting that the Eastern European nation’s right-wing ruling party is “afraid” of her film’s damning portrayal of its response to the refugee crisis. The movie is competing for a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival this week.
“We expected that they would be furious. They are afraid of this subject. They know we are telling the truth,” Holland said, speaking from the Venice Film Festival. “They are in denial — cynical denial, in my opinion. And they didn’t think that we would be so vocal about it — that our voice would be heard in many places.”
On Monday, Poland’s hard-right justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter): “In the Third Reich, the...
“We expected that they would be furious. They are afraid of this subject. They know we are telling the truth,” Holland said, speaking from the Venice Film Festival. “They are in denial — cynical denial, in my opinion. And they didn’t think that we would be so vocal about it — that our voice would be heard in many places.”
On Monday, Poland’s hard-right justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter): “In the Third Reich, the...
- 9/6/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Bosnian-Dutch filmmaker Ena Sendijarević’s Locarno prizewinner “Sweet Dreams,” a droll satire set on a sugar plantation in colonial-era Indonesia, has released its first trailer. Athens-based production and sales outfit Heretic has given Variety exclusive access ahead of the film’s North American premiere in the Centerpiece section of the Toronto Film Festival (see below).
“Sweet Dreams” is set on a remote island in the Dutch East Indies during the waning days of the colonial era. It centers on Dutch plantation owner Jan (Hans Dagelet) and his wife, Agathe (Renée Soutendijk), who are at the top of the food chain. That is, until Jan, upon returning from his nightly visit to his native concubine, Siti (Hayati Azis), suddenly drops dead in front of his wife.
Desperate to keep the privileges of her status quo, Agathe forces her estranged son Cornelius (Florian Myjer) and his heavily pregnant wife, Josefien (Lisa Zweerman...
“Sweet Dreams” is set on a remote island in the Dutch East Indies during the waning days of the colonial era. It centers on Dutch plantation owner Jan (Hans Dagelet) and his wife, Agathe (Renée Soutendijk), who are at the top of the food chain. That is, until Jan, upon returning from his nightly visit to his native concubine, Siti (Hayati Azis), suddenly drops dead in front of his wife.
Desperate to keep the privileges of her status quo, Agathe forces her estranged son Cornelius (Florian Myjer) and his heavily pregnant wife, Josefien (Lisa Zweerman...
- 9/4/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
“Dogman” director Luc Besson might be a newcomer to Venice, but following his film’s warm reception on Thursday, he’s likely to come back.
Though Besson’s Golden Lion contender polarized critics, with Variety’s Jessica Kiang sparing few words by calling it a “numbskulled nonsense movie,” audience members at the film’s gala premiere opted to spread the love at its world premiere, showering the film and filmmakers with six minutes of sustained applause. That tied the six-minute ovation Venice audiences gave Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” earlier in the evening on the second night of the prestigious festival.
If Besson offered no closing thoughts, the director nevertheless appeared visibly moved, beaming under the spotlight and embracing his cast with bear hugs. Besson shared a particularly tender moment with star Caleb Landry Jones, with whom he developed and honed the central role over the course of a full year before the cameras ever rolled.
Though Besson’s Golden Lion contender polarized critics, with Variety’s Jessica Kiang sparing few words by calling it a “numbskulled nonsense movie,” audience members at the film’s gala premiere opted to spread the love at its world premiere, showering the film and filmmakers with six minutes of sustained applause. That tied the six-minute ovation Venice audiences gave Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” earlier in the evening on the second night of the prestigious festival.
If Besson offered no closing thoughts, the director nevertheless appeared visibly moved, beaming under the spotlight and embracing his cast with bear hugs. Besson shared a particularly tender moment with star Caleb Landry Jones, with whom he developed and honed the central role over the course of a full year before the cameras ever rolled.
- 8/31/2023
- by Ben Croll, Ellise Shafer and Zack Sharf
- Variety Film + TV
On the final weekend of a bustling 18-day event, the in-person edition of this year’s Melbourne Film Festival has drawn to a close with an awards ceremony that saw a whopping $300,000 Aud in prize money handed out across six categories. The biggest individual award of $140,000 Aud was presented to the winner of the fest’s international Bright Horizons competition: “Banel & Adama,” an arresting debut feature by Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy.
It’s a notable coup for a small-scale rural love story that turned heads — but won no prizes — when it premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and is still seeking distribution in the U.S. and other major territories. Reviewing the film out of Cannes, Variety critic Jessica Kiang commended the “subtly seductive power” of a “striking debut [that] revolves with graceful poetry around the inner experiences of a curious, unknowable woman.”
Its win came...
It’s a notable coup for a small-scale rural love story that turned heads — but won no prizes — when it premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and is still seeking distribution in the U.S. and other major territories. Reviewing the film out of Cannes, Variety critic Jessica Kiang commended the “subtly seductive power” of a “striking debut [that] revolves with graceful poetry around the inner experiences of a curious, unknowable woman.”
Its win came...
- 8/19/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Receiving a lifetime achievement award this week at the Sarajevo Film Festival, Scottish director Lynne Ramsay teased a slew of projects currently in the pipeline, heralding her much-anticipated return to the director’s chair since wowing Cannes in 2017 with the Joaquin Phoenix-starring thriller “You Were Never Really Here.”
Among them are a second collaboration with Phoenix, who earned best actor honors on the Croisette for that performance, as well as “Stone Mattress,” a revenge thriller set aboard a luxury Arctic cruise that stars Julianne Moore and Sandra Oh. There’s also “Die, My Love,” starring Jennifer Lawrence, which is based on the novel by Argentinian writer Ariana Harwicz about a woman living in isolation in rural France who loses her mind amid marriage and motherhood.
Then there’s the long-gestating “Moby Dick” film adaptation that the director has said would transport Herman Melville’s nautical epic into outer space.
Among them are a second collaboration with Phoenix, who earned best actor honors on the Croisette for that performance, as well as “Stone Mattress,” a revenge thriller set aboard a luxury Arctic cruise that stars Julianne Moore and Sandra Oh. There’s also “Die, My Love,” starring Jennifer Lawrence, which is based on the novel by Argentinian writer Ariana Harwicz about a woman living in isolation in rural France who loses her mind amid marriage and motherhood.
Then there’s the long-gestating “Moby Dick” film adaptation that the director has said would transport Herman Melville’s nautical epic into outer space.
- 8/19/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman blasted Hollywood studio bosses this week at the Sarajevo Film Festival, calling out their pay packages and insisting that cost-cutting executives are willing to sacrifice the art of moviemaking for the sake of profit.
“It’s disgusting, because they don’t do anything,” Kaufman told Variety. “No, they do damage is what they do. They do damage to the art form. And by doing that, they do damage to humanity. And if everything is about the bottom line for them and saving money, then there’s nothing left to the art form.”
The Academy Award-winning “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” writer and three-time Oscar nominee is in Sarajevo this week to receive a lifetime achievement award. Throughout the week, he’s been spotted on the streets of the Bosnian capital wearing a gray T-shirt reading “Writers Guild on Strike.” During an interview with Variety, Kaufman...
“It’s disgusting, because they don’t do anything,” Kaufman told Variety. “No, they do damage is what they do. They do damage to the art form. And by doing that, they do damage to humanity. And if everything is about the bottom line for them and saving money, then there’s nothing left to the art form.”
The Academy Award-winning “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” writer and three-time Oscar nominee is in Sarajevo this week to receive a lifetime achievement award. Throughout the week, he’s been spotted on the streets of the Bosnian capital wearing a gray T-shirt reading “Writers Guild on Strike.” During an interview with Variety, Kaufman...
- 8/18/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
International sellers talked about how they work to engage critics, buyers and then audiences.
The clock is always ticking and sales agents representing indie films at major festivals have as little as two days to close the key deals before the opportunity vanishes. This was one of the insights provided at Sarajevo’s Cinelink Industry Days panel ‘Perspectives on Independent Cinema and Global Content’ this week.
Sébastien Chesneau, founder of Dubai-based sales outfit Cercamon, emphasised the need to act quickly at film markets. “There is a window of maybe two days when the distributors are still at the festival and...
The clock is always ticking and sales agents representing indie films at major festivals have as little as two days to close the key deals before the opportunity vanishes. This was one of the insights provided at Sarajevo’s Cinelink Industry Days panel ‘Perspectives on Independent Cinema and Global Content’ this week.
Sébastien Chesneau, founder of Dubai-based sales outfit Cercamon, emphasised the need to act quickly at film markets. “There is a window of maybe two days when the distributors are still at the festival and...
- 8/17/2023
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Sovereign has acquired the U.K. and Ireland rights to Radu Jude’s latest feature, “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World,” which won the special jury prize at Locarno Film Festival.
Written and directed by Jude, the comedy stars Ilinca Manolache, Ovidiu Pîrșan, Dorina Lazăr, László Miske, Katia Pascariu and Sofia Nicolaescu, with cameos from Nina Hoss and Uwe Boll. According to its official synopsis, the film follows an overworked production assistant who is instructed to “film a workplace safety video commissioned by a multinational company. But an interviewee makes a statement which forces him to reinvent his story to suit the company’s narrative.”
“Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” recently premiered at Locarno, where it was nominated for the Golden Leopard Award for best film and won the festival’s special jury prize. The film was well-received by critics at the fest,...
Written and directed by Jude, the comedy stars Ilinca Manolache, Ovidiu Pîrșan, Dorina Lazăr, László Miske, Katia Pascariu and Sofia Nicolaescu, with cameos from Nina Hoss and Uwe Boll. According to its official synopsis, the film follows an overworked production assistant who is instructed to “film a workplace safety video commissioned by a multinational company. But an interviewee makes a statement which forces him to reinvent his story to suit the company’s narrative.”
“Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” recently premiered at Locarno, where it was nominated for the Golden Leopard Award for best film and won the festival’s special jury prize. The film was well-received by critics at the fest,...
- 8/16/2023
- by Ellise Shafer
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSOn July 13, SAG-AFTRA issued a strike order, joining the WGA, who have been striking since May. In an incendiary speech, the guild’s president, Fran Drescher, said: “SAG-AFTRA negotiated in good faith and was eager to reach a deal that sufficiently addressed performer needs, but the AMPTP’s responses to the union’s most important proposals have been insulting and disrespectful of our massive contributions to this industry…Until they do negotiate in good faith, we cannot begin to reach a deal.” This Vulture Q&a with Jonathan Handel, author of Hollywood on Strike!: An Industry at War in the Internet Age, delves into the details of the work stoppage.Applications are open for Open City Documentary Festival & Another Gaze’s third annual critics’ workshop, which will take place in early September during the festival.
- 7/19/2023
- MUBI
Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. rights to “Four Daughters,” Kaouther Ben Hania’s film which competed at the Cannes Film Festival.
The competition’s sole Arab film, “Four Daughters” mixes documentary and fiction to tell the story of a Tunisian mother whose two elder daughters joined Isis. It won L’Oeil d’or or “Golden Eye” Award at Cannes for best documentary and is now set to roll off into the international festival circuit. Kino Lorber plans to release it theatrically this fall, followed by a digital and home video release on all major platforms.
The New York-based distribution company has high hopes for “Four Daughters” during the next awards season. Last year’s L’Oeil d’Or winner, “All That Breathes,” went on to earn an Oscar nomination for best documentary. Ben Hania previously earned an Oscar nomination with her 2020 film “The Man Who Sold His Skin” in the international feature film category.
The competition’s sole Arab film, “Four Daughters” mixes documentary and fiction to tell the story of a Tunisian mother whose two elder daughters joined Isis. It won L’Oeil d’or or “Golden Eye” Award at Cannes for best documentary and is now set to roll off into the international festival circuit. Kino Lorber plans to release it theatrically this fall, followed by a digital and home video release on all major platforms.
The New York-based distribution company has high hopes for “Four Daughters” during the next awards season. Last year’s L’Oeil d’Or winner, “All That Breathes,” went on to earn an Oscar nomination for best documentary. Ben Hania previously earned an Oscar nomination with her 2020 film “The Man Who Sold His Skin” in the international feature film category.
- 6/22/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s feature debut “Goodbye Julia,” a timely morality tale that takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan and won the Un Certain Regard section’s Prix de Liberté (Freedom Prize) at Cannes, has scored a raft of sales following its launch.
The first Sudanese film ever to screen in Cannes official selection, “Goodbye Julia” is the story of two women — one from the North, the other from the South — who are brought together by fate in a complex relationship that attempts to reconcile differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities in the currently war-ravaged country.
After being picked up by Arp Sélection for France just ahead of its Cannes world premiere in May, the well-received drama has now been sold by pan-Arab distributor Mad Solutions – which moved into international distribution with this title – to the following territories: Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (September Film...
The first Sudanese film ever to screen in Cannes official selection, “Goodbye Julia” is the story of two women — one from the North, the other from the South — who are brought together by fate in a complex relationship that attempts to reconcile differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities in the currently war-ravaged country.
After being picked up by Arp Sélection for France just ahead of its Cannes world premiere in May, the well-received drama has now been sold by pan-Arab distributor Mad Solutions – which moved into international distribution with this title – to the following territories: Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (September Film...
- 6/16/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Below you will find the results of Notebook's critics' poll for the best films of the Cannes Film Festival, as well as an index of our coverage of the festival.Awardstop 101. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki)2. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)3. May December (Todd Haynes)4. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)5. Close Your Eyes (Víctor Erice)6. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)7. La chimera (Alice Rohrwacher)8. The Pot-au-feu (Tràn Anh Hùng)9. A Prince (Pierre Creton)10. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat)(Poll contributors: Pedro Emilio Segura Bernal, Anna Bogutskaya, Jordan Cronk, Flavia Dima, Lawrence Garcia, Leonardo Goi, Daniel Kasman, Jessica Kiang, Roger Koza, Elena Lazic, Beatrice Loayza, Guy Lodge, Łukasz Mańkowski, Savina Petkova, Caitlin Quinlan, Vadim Rizov, Christopher Small, Öykü Sofuoğlu, Blake Williams)DISPATCHESThe Obscenity of EvilLeonardo Goi on The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer), The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams), Eureka (Lisandro Alonso), and Killers of the Flower Moon...
- 6/14/2023
- MUBI
Emmy contender “Reality” (minimally) dramatizes Reality Winner’s arrest and interrogation by the FBI. The Nsa-linguist-turned-whistleblower received a record-long sentence, five years and three months, for stealing and disseminating classified documents related to Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Tina Satter’s verbatim stage adaptation of the FBI transcript, the curiously (un)punctuated “Is This A Room,” sought to restore some of the agency that was taken from Winner when statements she had made prior to being formally arrested were levied against her in court. Jessica Kiang (Variety) argues just as much, writing that the framework “proves that sometimes what you say can be used for you too.” The play’s filmed rendition, also directed by Satter, got positive write-ups and unanimous praise for lead Sydney Sweeney after premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival, where HBO purchased it for an undisclosed price. What had been hyped as a big-screen...
Tina Satter’s verbatim stage adaptation of the FBI transcript, the curiously (un)punctuated “Is This A Room,” sought to restore some of the agency that was taken from Winner when statements she had made prior to being formally arrested were levied against her in court. Jessica Kiang (Variety) argues just as much, writing that the framework “proves that sometimes what you say can be used for you too.” The play’s filmed rendition, also directed by Satter, got positive write-ups and unanimous praise for lead Sydney Sweeney after premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival, where HBO purchased it for an undisclosed price. What had been hyped as a big-screen...
- 5/30/2023
- by Ronald Meyer
- Gold Derby
Oscar-nominated Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s powerful drama “Four Daughters” which mixes documentary and fiction to tell the story of a Tunisian mother whose two elder daughters joined Isis is scoring a slew of sales following its well-received Cannes competition premiere.
French company The Party Films Sales has sealed deals on “Four Daughters” for: Benelux (Cineart); Spain (Caramel Films); Italy (I Wonder); Switzerland (Trigon); Sweden (Triart); Denmark (Camera Film); Norway (Arthaus); Finland (Cinemanse); Poland (New Horizons); Greece (Ama Films); former Yougoslavia (Discovery) and Turkey (Bir Film).
Rights to the film for multiple other territories are under negotiations, the company said.
Ben Hania – whose previous works comprise “Beauty and the Dogs” and “The Man Who Sold His Skin” – in “Four Daughters” delves into the story of Tunisia’s Olfa Hamrouni who rose to international prominence in April 2016 when she publicized the radicalization of her two teenage daughters who had left Tunisia to fight with Isis.
French company The Party Films Sales has sealed deals on “Four Daughters” for: Benelux (Cineart); Spain (Caramel Films); Italy (I Wonder); Switzerland (Trigon); Sweden (Triart); Denmark (Camera Film); Norway (Arthaus); Finland (Cinemanse); Poland (New Horizons); Greece (Ama Films); former Yougoslavia (Discovery) and Turkey (Bir Film).
Rights to the film for multiple other territories are under negotiations, the company said.
Ben Hania – whose previous works comprise “Beauty and the Dogs” and “The Man Who Sold His Skin” – in “Four Daughters” delves into the story of Tunisia’s Olfa Hamrouni who rose to international prominence in April 2016 when she publicized the radicalization of her two teenage daughters who had left Tunisia to fight with Isis.
- 5/24/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The FBI has it out for Sydney Sweeney in the trailer for “Reality,” Tina Satter’s gripping biopic-docudrama about the America intelligence whistleblower Reality Winner.
The upcoming HBO film stars Sweeney as Winner, who was imprisoned for releasing classified information about Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The film also stars Marchánt Davis and Josh Hamilton.
“Reality” is based on Satter’s play, “Is This a Room,” and the FBI’s transcript of their 2017 interrogation of Winner, which took place in her home just days prior to her arrest.
“Truly, when I first stumbled upon the transcript for the interrogation just through reading it I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is like a movie thriller.’ I really felt that,” Satter told Variety.
Sweeney, on the other hand, didn’t fall as easily into the role. She felt differently playing Winner than she has about previous characters. “Reality,...
The upcoming HBO film stars Sweeney as Winner, who was imprisoned for releasing classified information about Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The film also stars Marchánt Davis and Josh Hamilton.
“Reality” is based on Satter’s play, “Is This a Room,” and the FBI’s transcript of their 2017 interrogation of Winner, which took place in her home just days prior to her arrest.
“Truly, when I first stumbled upon the transcript for the interrogation just through reading it I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is like a movie thriller.’ I really felt that,” Satter told Variety.
Sweeney, on the other hand, didn’t fall as easily into the role. She felt differently playing Winner than she has about previous characters. “Reality,...
- 5/11/2023
- by Sophia Scorziello
- Variety Film + TV
“The Eight Mountains,” Belgian directors Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s Italian-language drama about friendship, mountains and growing up, scored the top prize at Italy’s 68th David di Donatello Awards.
Besides winning best picture, the film also scooped statuettes for best non-original screenplay, photography and sound.
Given that the directors are not Italian, it was a particularly significant victory for “Mountains,” which was praised as “quietly magnificent” by Variety critic Jessica Kiang. The film, which is currently playing well on the U.S. arthouse circuit, tracks the decades-long friendship between two Italian boys named Pietro and Bruno — one from the city, the other a shepherd boy from the Alps.
“It’s pretty incredible,” commented a visibly moved Van Groeningen. “Two Belgians who win this prize in Italy for an Italian movie.” “Thank you for this declaration of love,” added Vandermeersch, his partner in life. “We love Italy very much.
Besides winning best picture, the film also scooped statuettes for best non-original screenplay, photography and sound.
Given that the directors are not Italian, it was a particularly significant victory for “Mountains,” which was praised as “quietly magnificent” by Variety critic Jessica Kiang. The film, which is currently playing well on the U.S. arthouse circuit, tracks the decades-long friendship between two Italian boys named Pietro and Bruno — one from the city, the other a shepherd boy from the Alps.
“It’s pretty incredible,” commented a visibly moved Van Groeningen. “Two Belgians who win this prize in Italy for an Italian movie.” “Thank you for this declaration of love,” added Vandermeersch, his partner in life. “We love Italy very much.
- 5/10/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
A drama set in the 1870s in the Swiss town of Saint-Imier and centered around the makers of timepieces may not sound like the stuff of thrilling cinema. But “Unrest,” Cyril Schäublin’s drama about the days and ways of watchmakers on the brink of an anarchist revolution, is indeed a quietly suspenseful and stirring piece, one that ticks toward social inevitabilities as Communist ideals begin to take over Europe. Exclusive to IndieWire, watch the trailer below before it hits theaters next month.
Swiss filmmaker Schäublin previously directed the 2017 Locarno prize winner “Those Who Are Fine,” and “Unrest” again found the director in the spotlight of the festival circuit. He won the Encounters Award at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival for “Unrest,” where the jury said, “With a strange and unsettling calm, the film immerses the viewer in a moment where ideals of collectivity and anarchism confront the encroaching powers of...
Swiss filmmaker Schäublin previously directed the 2017 Locarno prize winner “Those Who Are Fine,” and “Unrest” again found the director in the spotlight of the festival circuit. He won the Encounters Award at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival for “Unrest,” where the jury said, “With a strange and unsettling calm, the film immerses the viewer in a moment where ideals of collectivity and anarchism confront the encroaching powers of...
- 4/5/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Davis Guggenheim’s “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” will open the eighth edition of Chicago’s Doc10 documentary film festival on May 4.
About Fox’s life, career and work as a public advocate for Parkinson’s research, “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” debuted at Sundance in January. Guggenheim, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind “An Inconvenient Truth” will be at Doc10 to participate in a post-screening conversation.
Doc10, a four-day fest running May 4-7, features a selection of 10 of this year’s most acclaimed documentaries and a package of prestigious doc shorts. Dedicated to supporting social-impact documentary films, the fest is hosted by Chicago Media Project, a company that raises funds for and produces docus including “Crip Camp” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
In addition to “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” Doc10 will screen: Penny Lane’s “Confessions of a Good Samaritan,” Nicole Newnham’s “The Disappearance of the Shere Hite,...
About Fox’s life, career and work as a public advocate for Parkinson’s research, “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” debuted at Sundance in January. Guggenheim, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind “An Inconvenient Truth” will be at Doc10 to participate in a post-screening conversation.
Doc10, a four-day fest running May 4-7, features a selection of 10 of this year’s most acclaimed documentaries and a package of prestigious doc shorts. Dedicated to supporting social-impact documentary films, the fest is hosted by Chicago Media Project, a company that raises funds for and produces docus including “Crip Camp” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
In addition to “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” Doc10 will screen: Penny Lane’s “Confessions of a Good Samaritan,” Nicole Newnham’s “The Disappearance of the Shere Hite,...
- 3/27/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Neon has purchased North American rights to “Eileen,” an adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s acclaimed novel of the same title.
The movie debuted to strong reviews at Sundance, but its high price tag, said by sources to be in the range of $15 million, made it difficult for the film to score a distribution deal. It languished on the market for roughly two months as several studios kicked the tires. This despite the combined star wattage of “Jojo Rabbit’s” Thomasin McKenzie and Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway and a twisty plot. The rest of the ensemble includes Shea Whigham, Marin Ireland, and Owen Teague. William Oldroyd (“Lady Macbeth”) directs from a script by Moshfegh who adapted “Eileen” with Luke Goebel. Neon will release the film theatrically this fall.
The deal was negotiated by Jeff Deutchman for Neon, WME Independent and Fifth Season. Financial details of the sale were not revealed.
In the right hands,...
The movie debuted to strong reviews at Sundance, but its high price tag, said by sources to be in the range of $15 million, made it difficult for the film to score a distribution deal. It languished on the market for roughly two months as several studios kicked the tires. This despite the combined star wattage of “Jojo Rabbit’s” Thomasin McKenzie and Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway and a twisty plot. The rest of the ensemble includes Shea Whigham, Marin Ireland, and Owen Teague. William Oldroyd (“Lady Macbeth”) directs from a script by Moshfegh who adapted “Eileen” with Luke Goebel. Neon will release the film theatrically this fall.
The deal was negotiated by Jeff Deutchman for Neon, WME Independent and Fifth Season. Financial details of the sale were not revealed.
In the right hands,...
- 3/24/2023
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Mk2 films has enlisted leading distributors around the world for “Reality,” Tina Satter’s feature debut starring Sydney Sweeney, on the heels of its buzzy world premiere at the Berlinale.
The movie, which bowed in the Panorama section, stars Sweeney as Reality Winner, a 25 year-old whistleblower who spent five years in prison during the Trump administration. A former U.S. Air Force member and National Security Agency translator, Winner was convicted for leaking a confidential report on Russian election interference to the media.
The film is based on Satter’s 2019 stage play “Is This a Room” and contains verbatim dialogue from the unedited transcript of a FBI audio recording. “Reality” captures the tense and surreal 90 minutes of FBI’s interrogation with Winner at her home in 2017.
The Paris-based company has closed a flurry of major deals, selling the film to France (Metropolitan), UK (Vertigo), Italy (Lucky Red), Germany, Austria and German-speaking...
The movie, which bowed in the Panorama section, stars Sweeney as Reality Winner, a 25 year-old whistleblower who spent five years in prison during the Trump administration. A former U.S. Air Force member and National Security Agency translator, Winner was convicted for leaking a confidential report on Russian election interference to the media.
The film is based on Satter’s 2019 stage play “Is This a Room” and contains verbatim dialogue from the unedited transcript of a FBI audio recording. “Reality” captures the tense and surreal 90 minutes of FBI’s interrogation with Winner at her home in 2017.
The Paris-based company has closed a flurry of major deals, selling the film to France (Metropolitan), UK (Vertigo), Italy (Lucky Red), Germany, Austria and German-speaking...
- 3/9/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired worldwide rights to “Shortcomings,” the feature directorial debut of “Fresh Off the Boat” actor Randall Park, following its premiere at Sundance Film Festival.
“The thought of ‘Shortcomings’ playing on a big screen and opening with that iconic Sony Pictures Classics logo thrills me to no end,” Park said. “To be a part of their rich legacy of independent filmmaking is a real honor. Thank you to Michael [Barker] and Tom [Bernard] for embracing our story about flawed, complex human beings, who happen to be Asian American, just trying their best. Please do not change your logo anytime soon.”
Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola and Ally Maki star in the coming-of-age story, which follows Ben (Min), a struggling filmmaker, and his girlfriend, Miko (Maki), who works for a local Asian American film festival. When he’s not managing an arthouse movie theater in the Bay Area as his day job,...
“The thought of ‘Shortcomings’ playing on a big screen and opening with that iconic Sony Pictures Classics logo thrills me to no end,” Park said. “To be a part of their rich legacy of independent filmmaking is a real honor. Thank you to Michael [Barker] and Tom [Bernard] for embracing our story about flawed, complex human beings, who happen to be Asian American, just trying their best. Please do not change your logo anytime soon.”
Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola and Ally Maki star in the coming-of-age story, which follows Ben (Min), a struggling filmmaker, and his girlfriend, Miko (Maki), who works for a local Asian American film festival. When he’s not managing an arthouse movie theater in the Bay Area as his day job,...
- 3/7/2023
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSOn the Adamant.The Berlinale wrapped up over the weekend. The Golden Bear was awarded to Nicolas Philibert’s On the Adamant, while other major prizes went to Christian Petzold, Philippe Garrel, Angela Schanelec, and Dp Hélène Louvart. You can browse the full list of winners on Notebook, and keep your eyes peeled for our reports.In other festival news: Ruben Östlund will preside over this year’s Cannes jury, and the full lineup has been unveiled for Film at Lincoln Center and MoMA’s New Directors/New Films.The pioneering Senegalese filmmaker Safi Faye—the first African woman to make a commercially distributed feature film—died last week at the age of 80. Writer and programmer Yasmina Price recently surfaced a thread of archival material,...
- 2/28/2023
- MUBI
Veteran French docmaker Nicolas Philibert was the surprise winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, taking the prize for his film “On the Adamant,” a poignant observational study of a Paris mental health care facility.
He received the award from jury president Kristen Stewart, after the star offered an extended and plainly heartfelt ode to the film’s humanity and simplicity: “People have gone in circles for thousands of years trying to pin down what can be deemed art, who’s allowed to do it and what determines its value,” she said, citing the boundary-pushing nature of the festival, and namechecking such opposing philosophers on the matter as Aristotle, Barthes, Sontag and Beavis & Butthead, before concluding, “For all of us, you just know it when you see it.”
It was an apt way to introduce a film that stood out in this year’s Competition...
He received the award from jury president Kristen Stewart, after the star offered an extended and plainly heartfelt ode to the film’s humanity and simplicity: “People have gone in circles for thousands of years trying to pin down what can be deemed art, who’s allowed to do it and what determines its value,” she said, citing the boundary-pushing nature of the festival, and namechecking such opposing philosophers on the matter as Aristotle, Barthes, Sontag and Beavis & Butthead, before concluding, “For all of us, you just know it when you see it.”
It was an apt way to introduce a film that stood out in this year’s Competition...
- 2/25/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Following a buzzy world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, HBO Films has acquired the U.S. rights to the docudrama “Reality,” starring Sydney Sweeney.
In the film, directed by Tina Satter, Sweeney portrays Reality Winner, a woman convicted of leaking a confidential report on Russian election interference to the media. The film contains verbatim dialogue from the unedited transcript of a FBI audio recording, capturing a tense 90 minutes as the FBI interrogates Winner at her home in 2017. The whistleblower — a former U.S. Air Force member and National Security Agency translator — was sentenced to five years in prison.
Satter makes her feature directorial debut with the film, based on her 2019 stage play “Is This a Room.” She also executive produced the project and co-wrote the screenplay with James Paul Dallas.
While HBO hasn’t set a release date yet, Sweeney has a dedicated fanbase among the network’s audience after...
In the film, directed by Tina Satter, Sweeney portrays Reality Winner, a woman convicted of leaking a confidential report on Russian election interference to the media. The film contains verbatim dialogue from the unedited transcript of a FBI audio recording, capturing a tense 90 minutes as the FBI interrogates Winner at her home in 2017. The whistleblower — a former U.S. Air Force member and National Security Agency translator — was sentenced to five years in prison.
Satter makes her feature directorial debut with the film, based on her 2019 stage play “Is This a Room.” She also executive produced the project and co-wrote the screenplay with James Paul Dallas.
While HBO hasn’t set a release date yet, Sweeney has a dedicated fanbase among the network’s audience after...
- 2/25/2023
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
Acclaimed New York-based theater director Tina Satter has worked on productions on and off Broadway for more than a decade. Now, in her first ever venture into film, Satter makes her directorial debut with “Reality,” starring Sydney Sweeney, based on Satter’s play “Is This a Room.” The film premiered Saturday at the Berlin Film Festival with Variety critic Jessica Kiang calling it a “clever, gripping docudrama.”
For Satter, who co-wrote the screenplay with James Paul Dallas, making this movie was always in the books. The film, based on the real-life FBI interrogation transcript of whistleblower Reality Winner, is one Satter could envision the first time she came across the documents of the conversation between Winner and the Federal Bureau.
“Truly, when I first stumbled upon the transcript for the interrogation just through reading it I was like, oh my god, this is like a movie thriller. I really felt that,...
For Satter, who co-wrote the screenplay with James Paul Dallas, making this movie was always in the books. The film, based on the real-life FBI interrogation transcript of whistleblower Reality Winner, is one Satter could envision the first time she came across the documents of the conversation between Winner and the Federal Bureau.
“Truly, when I first stumbled upon the transcript for the interrogation just through reading it I was like, oh my god, this is like a movie thriller. I really felt that,...
- 2/19/2023
- by Shayeza Walid
- Variety Film + TV
Sundance standout film “Animalia,” by French-Moroccan filmmaker Sofia Alaoui, has been acquired for distribution across the Middle East and North Africa by Egypt’s Film Clinic, the shingle headed by producer Mohamed Hefzy.
Film Clinic, a top film and TV production company that branched out into theatrical distribution in 2016, picked up “Animalia” from Paris-based sales company Totem Films.
Alaoui’s genre-bending pic is the tale of a pregnant young woman in Morocco whose life is upended by an alien invasion. In her review, Variety review critic Jessica Kiang praised “Animalia” as “a compellingly different cultural and social perspective on a classic sci-fi premise.” “Alaoui, working from her own taut, confidently ambiguous script, also gets to comment on the position of women in Muslim societies and the limits of wealth and organized faith, as well as elegantly outlining the eerie experience that is suddenly finding yourself startlingly alone during a time of shared global panic,...
Film Clinic, a top film and TV production company that branched out into theatrical distribution in 2016, picked up “Animalia” from Paris-based sales company Totem Films.
Alaoui’s genre-bending pic is the tale of a pregnant young woman in Morocco whose life is upended by an alien invasion. In her review, Variety review critic Jessica Kiang praised “Animalia” as “a compellingly different cultural and social perspective on a classic sci-fi premise.” “Alaoui, working from her own taut, confidently ambiguous script, also gets to comment on the position of women in Muslim societies and the limits of wealth and organized faith, as well as elegantly outlining the eerie experience that is suddenly finding yourself startlingly alone during a time of shared global panic,...
- 2/18/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
“Decision to Leave,” Park Chan-wook’s haunting new thriller, will return to cinemas on Feb. 13.
But there’s a twist. The version that screens in theaters will also include a new conversation between Park and Bong Joon-ho, the Oscar-winning director of “Parasite.” Mubi is distributing the film.
“Decision to Leave” has been one of the most-acclaimed movies of the year. It captured the best director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and has been shortlisted for the best international feature award at the 95th Academy Awards. It is expected to be a top contender for that honor. “Decision to Leave” has already been nominated for best motion picture – non-english language film at the Golden Globes, as well as best foreign language film at the Critics’ Choice Awards, and best international film at the 2022 British Independent Film Awards and the Gotham Independent Film Awards.
Park is one of South Korea’s most renowned filmmakers.
But there’s a twist. The version that screens in theaters will also include a new conversation between Park and Bong Joon-ho, the Oscar-winning director of “Parasite.” Mubi is distributing the film.
“Decision to Leave” has been one of the most-acclaimed movies of the year. It captured the best director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and has been shortlisted for the best international feature award at the 95th Academy Awards. It is expected to be a top contender for that honor. “Decision to Leave” has already been nominated for best motion picture – non-english language film at the Golden Globes, as well as best foreign language film at the Critics’ Choice Awards, and best international film at the 2022 British Independent Film Awards and the Gotham Independent Film Awards.
Park is one of South Korea’s most renowned filmmakers.
- 1/13/2023
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
“Return to Seoul” writer-director Davy Chou has signed with CAA and Anonymous Content for representation.
The Cambodian-French filmmaker’s latest film “Return to Seoul” has been selected as Cambodia’s official entry for the international feature category at the 2023 Academy Awards and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for best international film.
Chou wrote and directed the film, which follows Freddie (Park Ji-Min), a 25-year-old French woman who returns to Korea, where she was born before being adopted, for the very first time. When she decides to track down her biological parents, her journey takes a surprising turn.
The movie premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics (and subsequently renamed from “All the People I’ll Never Be”). The film went on to screen at TIFF, the NYFF and more than 60 festivals, including award-winning...
The Cambodian-French filmmaker’s latest film “Return to Seoul” has been selected as Cambodia’s official entry for the international feature category at the 2023 Academy Awards and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for best international film.
Chou wrote and directed the film, which follows Freddie (Park Ji-Min), a 25-year-old French woman who returns to Korea, where she was born before being adopted, for the very first time. When she decides to track down her biological parents, her journey takes a surprising turn.
The movie premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics (and subsequently renamed from “All the People I’ll Never Be”). The film went on to screen at TIFF, the NYFF and more than 60 festivals, including award-winning...
- 12/9/2022
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
Cinedigm has acquired SXSW genre bender “Jethica” from New York’s Visit Films for U.S. release, Variety can reveal.
Pete Ohs’ offbeat movie — which premiered in Austin, Texas, earlier this year — follows Jessica, who lives in fear of a man named Kevin that follows her everywhere she goes. While on a road trip in New Mexico, she reconnects with old high school friend Elena who has been hiding out at her deceased grandmother’s ranch.
When Kevin mysteriously appears again, Jessica and Elena seek help from beyond the grave to get rid of him for good — but Kevin is different from other stalkers and won’t move on so easily.
“Jethica” has screened at festivals around the world including Busan, Overlook, Maryland, Filmfort, Germany’s B3 Biennial, and the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, where it received a Special Jury Award.
The movie will hit select cinemas on Jan. 13, starting with a run in L.
Pete Ohs’ offbeat movie — which premiered in Austin, Texas, earlier this year — follows Jessica, who lives in fear of a man named Kevin that follows her everywhere she goes. While on a road trip in New Mexico, she reconnects with old high school friend Elena who has been hiding out at her deceased grandmother’s ranch.
When Kevin mysteriously appears again, Jessica and Elena seek help from beyond the grave to get rid of him for good — but Kevin is different from other stalkers and won’t move on so easily.
“Jethica” has screened at festivals around the world including Busan, Overlook, Maryland, Filmfort, Germany’s B3 Biennial, and the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, where it received a Special Jury Award.
The movie will hit select cinemas on Jan. 13, starting with a run in L.
- 12/8/2022
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Kjersti Paulsen was named the winner of the Semiramis Award for excellence in casting for her work on “The Innocents,” directed by Norway’s Eskil Vogt, at a ceremony Saturday at Torino Film Festival.
The psychological thriller about four kids who suddenly discover they have hidden powers celebrated its world premiere at Cannes, with Variety’s Jessica Kiang praising its “exceptional child performers.”
“The producer, director and I agreed on the importance of finding the right children and gave it the highest priority. All other characters had to wait,” said Paulsen before her win.
“My job is to create an environment where the children feel secure and can join in the role-play we bring them into. Then I need to determine the children’s capacity for empathy, their ability to listen to co-players, imagination and self-confidence.”
“The Innocents”
The award – established in 2016 by the International Casting Directors Network (Icdn) – is...
The psychological thriller about four kids who suddenly discover they have hidden powers celebrated its world premiere at Cannes, with Variety’s Jessica Kiang praising its “exceptional child performers.”
“The producer, director and I agreed on the importance of finding the right children and gave it the highest priority. All other characters had to wait,” said Paulsen before her win.
“My job is to create an environment where the children feel secure and can join in the role-play we bring them into. Then I need to determine the children’s capacity for empathy, their ability to listen to co-players, imagination and self-confidence.”
“The Innocents”
The award – established in 2016 by the International Casting Directors Network (Icdn) – is...
- 11/26/2022
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
After breaking out with a debut role in the film that ushered in the Greek Weird Wave and becoming one of his country’s most accomplished theater actors and directors, Christos Passalis makes his feature directorial debut with “Silence 6-9,” a haunting, melancholic love story that plays in competition this week at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.
Passalis’ first feature premiered in the Crystal Globe competition at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where it earned rapturous praise from Variety’s Jessica Kiang, who described Passalis’ “absorbing, surreal, retro-futurist love story” as a “beautifully crafted solo debut.”
“After a beginning unmistakably located deep within the familiarly bizarro, alien reaches of the Greek Weird Wave aesthetic, Passalis’ solo directorial debut gradually distinguishes itself by moving to a more human and humane place,” she wrote.
The film begins one night with a stranger arriving in a strange town. As he walks down a deserted...
Passalis’ first feature premiered in the Crystal Globe competition at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where it earned rapturous praise from Variety’s Jessica Kiang, who described Passalis’ “absorbing, surreal, retro-futurist love story” as a “beautifully crafted solo debut.”
“After a beginning unmistakably located deep within the familiarly bizarro, alien reaches of the Greek Weird Wave aesthetic, Passalis’ solo directorial debut gradually distinguishes itself by moving to a more human and humane place,” she wrote.
The film begins one night with a stranger arriving in a strange town. As he walks down a deserted...
- 11/7/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
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